Free Agency is Still Stacked, Timing Not Ideal (With One Exception), Wesneski’s

On Jan 19, 2024

The snows came and the kids are off from school. That means at some point I will do my fatherly duty and go play in the snow … absolutely nailing them with snowballs. It’s just the right thing to do.

OK, so I knew it was a lot more than last year, but seeing it laid out, holy smokes:

MLBTR Top 50 FA unsigned on 1/18/23:

Profar
Chafin
Wacha

on 1/18/24:

Bellinger
Snell
Montgomery
M. Chapman
Hader
Soler
J.D. Martinez
Hoskins
Stephenson
Clevinger
A. Chapman
Lorenzen
Urshela
Rosario
Merrifield
Turner
Belt
Neris
Junis
Hendriks
Tim Anderson

(+ many others…)

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) January 19, 2024

That’s extreme. That’s like the years we were thinking there was an intentional freeze out, and the Players Association was talking about collusion and opening up a free agent camp for players without homes by Spring Training. Are we going to see some of the same stuff this year, or will signings get going asap? Hader to the Astros seemed like it was picking up steam yesterday, and maybe that’ll get some balls rolling?

Generally speaking, you want all your key players signed by February 1 so that if they want to report early to your Spring Training facility – to start getting to know the staff and teammates, to work on tweaks, etc. – they can. People always say, “bah, there is still a month left before Spring Training,” and then, “bah, Spring Training only just started,” and then, “bah, the season still doesn’t start for two weeks.” … and then the season starts, and a guy struggles out of the gate, and those same people say, “bah, it’s OK, he didn’t have a normal Spring Training, so he’ll be fine eventually.” It’s just not a good setup if you want to maximize player success.

(One nice caveat for the Cubs this offseason? Cody Bellinger. Because he’s already been in the organization and because he lives in Arizona, that transition/adjustment time would probably be right about zero. If he didn’t sign until March – with the Cubs, that is – I don’t know that there’d be much of a “oh, man, he didn’t get a normal Spring Training” situation going on.)

The Cubs’ extremely patient approach may wind up paying off if they can get more talent now (because of the budget) than they could have back in November if they’d shopped quickly. But, I’ll keep saying it: getting “good deals” only matters if (1) the players perform, and (2) you actually DO USE that money that you saved to add even more talent.

Hayden Wesneski likes having a couple smart pitchers to talk to as he continues to develop his game:

Hayden Wesneski’s go-to pitching minds on the Cubs?

Kyle Hendricks and Mark Leiter Jr.

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) January 18, 2024

Wesneski sure is a wild card going into Spring Training, no? While I might handicap it one way or another, it is POSSIBLE that he…

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